What to do if your dog barks & growls at
other dogs
Does
your dog bark and growl at other dogs on walks?
This great article on ThatMutt.com has loads of practical tips on
prevention and cure, so to speak. The prevention
measures include: get the right training collar; keep your dog at your side
rather than in front of you; enrol in an obedience class and exercise,
exercise!
‘Cure’
tips include: distraction with highly valued treats; keep your body between
your dog and the other and do a u-turn and walk the other way.
They
highly recommend a book called, “Feisty Fido” for reactive dogs. It covers identifying triggers for your dog’s
behaviour, setting up positive experience and slowly changing your dog’s
reaction over time to those triggers.
(photo:
4Knines.com)
How to treat vomiting or diarrohea in your dog
Not one
to read if you’re eating! The brilliant
Pete the Vet tells us that stomach upsets in dogs are usually due to scavenging
or eating inappropriate foodstuffs. It
doesn’t happen with cats as often as they are much more fastidious eaters. He advises that science backs up the tried
and trusted treatment of bland food (chicken, fish, boiled rice) for 1-3 days
which relaxes the digestive system combined with rehydration. If your dog remains bright and active that’s
often enough. But he also outlines
warning signs to look out for that necessitate a visit to the vet and the
treatments that vets will give.
Pete has
a great slot on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk every Thursday where he
addresses a topic of interest to pet lovers and owners and also answers
listeners’ questions. The link below outlines
his key points on the ‘Spanish Tummy’ issue and there’s also a link to the
podcast. Pete also writes for the
Telegraph in the UK and features on various other media.
10 Commandments for your Puppy
As well
as affection and kindness, puppies need the security of routine and constantly
reinforced rules, according to this trainer.
Otherwise, they can’t magically grow into well behaved adult dogs – they
need to be trained very early in their young lives so that parameters are
set.
She has
10 training commandments and for each of these she describes in this article how
she trains puppies to: Pay attention when my owner/a person talks to me; Stuff
you can trash and stuff you can’t; Always toilet outside; Thou shalt not steal;
Thou shalt not shout thy mouth off; Recall means come back NOW; Stay means
Stay; Don’t whine or yap the minute you feel frustrated or don’t get your own
way; The purpose of a lead is not to pull your owner and finally, in the main,
co-operation brings far more good stuff in life than rebellion.
